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I honestly couldn't hold in my laughter when they showed a turret sequence in the precious little time they had to showcase their flagship RPG (hah) title. I know it's probably irrational and I missed out because of it, but I immediately skipped ahead when I saw the turret sequence and crossed the game off my radar.

Have to admit that I don't like the look of this. I don't understand the "Push button to stare at flying thing!" nonsense that's creeping into games. Thanks guys, but I can see it and I can follow it, you don't need to do it for me.

What I saw looked alright in the trailer and game-play sequences, but it just looked dull. Nothing grabbed my attention. It kinda felt like "Here is some shooting. Here is some moving. Here is some shooting while moving." It all looked very polished, but there was something missing.

What's missing? What are we looking for from Mass Effect 3? What makes a Mass Effect game good? I would be very surprised if the mechanics are the only things that people enjoyed in the series.

Guaranteed some people will buy the game this late in the series purely on storyline alone and regardless of whether the gameplay is any good. So that allows the devs to make the game appeal more to first time buyers by making it play like other things out there on the market.
But I'm not sure what they'll do about the story, whether they'll make it more accessible to newcomers to the series or make it a brilliant end to it (Not sure but I heard this is the last ME) so they won't have to worry about new people not getting how it's all working out as that might even push them to buy the previous games.
Tricky.

Soul? I don't know. Everything is there, I don't disagree, but I feel like the vibrant and extremely well fleshed out universe they've created, albeit slightly derivative at times, boiled down to "Shoot these dudes, yo!" The Reapers added atmosphere, but I got no sense of any RPG (I appreciate that's hard to convey), no sense of that great space they've invented, other than Reapers flying about. Credit where credit is due, in the gameplay when the Normandy swoops down to collect you, a smile did come to my face. I really hope we get to pilot that in the please-let-it-happen space combat game that has to exist.

Despite what I'm saying, I'll be getting ME3, I was just expecting something a little more, despite having no expectations whatsoever.

They could have made a trailer about menu navigation and dialogue selection. Golly, that would have been exciting.

But then they would have denied people something to complain about, and people need something to complain about, like I always say.

Indeed. The new forum seems to have brought with it a lot of cynics which is rather unfortunate. Hopefully once E3 is out of the way things will bed down again, but I suspect this week is going to consist of one long series of posts scoffing at everything that's shown from E3 based off of initial trailers. A few minutes footage is not enough to really make anything but snap judgements off imho. No doubt over the coming days there will be plenty of coverage from various site as to impressions coming from the convention floor and I suspect those longer looks will be much more indicative as to the true state of play with many titles.

Soul? I don't know. Everything is there, I don't disagree, but I feel like the vibrant and extremely well fleshed out universe they've created, albeit slightly derivative at times, boiled down to "Shoot these dudes, yo!" The Reapers added atmosphere, but I got no sense of any RPG (I appreciate that's hard to convey), no sense of that great space they've invented, other than Reapers flying about. Credit where credit is due, in the gameplay when the Normandy swoops down to collect you, a smile did come to my face. I really hope we get to pilot that in the please-let-it-happen space combat game that has to exist.

Despite what I'm saying, I'll be getting ME3, I was just expecting something a little more, despite having no expectations whatsoever.

I understand your thoughts. The things we've been shown are not the best of ME. It looks like all trailers etc have been about the conflict on Earth and as we've already heard, a substantial amount of the game will be about recruiting others to help with that fight. I understand why it's not in marketing as fiddling around on the quarian homeworld would be impenetrable for the purposes of marketing. I haven't seen anything at all to suggest that that side of the game has been changed at all. Instead we see differences in combat mechanics in what is likely the introduction to or finale of the game. I don't think we should worry based on this.

The soul, as you describe it, of ME is Shepard. The fact that he's there is honestly enough for me on its own. I genuinely think that Mass Effect is one of the strongest thematically driven games around and Shepard embodies that theme.

:) I knew somebody would comment about that. If you check my other posts on the subject I always refer to Shepard as female. I understand that some people don't play that way though. For myself, I've never even managed to finish the whole of the Eden Prime mission as a male Shepard, or as a Renegade Shepard for that matter. It's just not the role I want to play.

:) I knew somebody would comment about that. If you check my other posts on the subject I always refer to Shepard as female. I understand that some people don't play that way though. For myself, I've never even managed to finish the whole of the Eden Prime mission as a male Shepard, or as a Renegade Shepard for that matter. It's just not the role I want to play.

I actually finished both games first time round not only as ManShep, but as DefaultShep, so I can't really say anything. I've only ever played FemShep since then, though.

Indeed. The new forum seems to have brought with it a lot of cynics which is rather unfortunate. Hopefully once E3 is out of the way things will bed down again, but I suspect this week is going to consist of one long series of posts scoffing at everything that's shown from E3 based off of initial trailers. A few minutes footage is not enough to really make anything but snap judgements off imho. No doubt over the coming days there will be plenty of coverage from various site as to impressions coming from the convention floor and I suspect those longer looks will be much more indicative as to the true state of play with many titles.

Indeed E3 seems to stir things up quite a bit with gamers over-analyzing the tiniest bit of information. Indeed.

Indeed E3 seems to stir things up quite a bit with gamers over-analyzing the tiniest bit of information. Indeed.

It's just funny how gamers are always so doubtful about whether we'll actually get what developers promise, but can have such unwavering certitude about whether we'll get what someone who makes a post on the internet fears.

That said, one can go too far the other way. I think I probably do. I'm just an optimist.

I think it's bizarre that games marketing of this kind exists at all. Games are all about play and the experience of the player in response to cues in the game. No video can ever replicate that. I think Cliffski is right that the only good marketing strategy is to release demos. It's just a shame that the industry has apparently given up on that idea. In the absence of a demo I would prefer a CGI video that demonstrates the thematic style of a game rather than a video of always shonky looking gameplay. I know I'm in a minority on that, however.